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Kaspa launches Testnet 12 with covenants enabled, letting developers test programmable spending features on its Proof of Work network.
Author: Akshay
January 6, 2026. Kaspa Testnet 12 is now live as the first public Kaspa network running with covenants fully enabled. The testnet allows developers and community members to experiment with advanced scripting features that define how coins can be spent.
Kaspa launched its mainnet in 2022 using the GHOSTDAG blockDAG architecture to achieve high throughput while maintaining Proof of Work security. The network scaled rapidly, prioritizing decentralization, fair emission, and low confirmation times.
Covenants emerged in 2025 as Kaspa’s approach to smart contract style functionality. Inspired by Bitcoin research, they enable constrained spending conditions such as vaults, escrow, and inheritance logic while preserving simplicity and security.
January 6, 2026. The launch of Kaspa Testnet 12, which enables covenants for advanced scripting, has generated developer excitement but produced minimal short term price movement for $KAS. Current $KAS price ranges from $0.04 to $0.05 USD, averaging around $0.046 across major exchanges, with 24 hour changes between -1% and +2%. Trading volume remains moderate at roughly $30 to $50 million daily, reflecting technical interest in the covenant milestone without speculative frenzy.
Fritz 𐤊
@Fritzmeister7
Kaspa X hasn't been this silent in ages during a 10%+ daily pump This is bullish https://t.co/QioB0RX6rV
08:18 PM·Jan 4, 2026
elperor
@elperorr
The $KAS Testnet 12 PR has been merged! 🚀 TN12 is the Kaspa test network running covenants, a feature introduced via KIP-17. Kaspa covenants let UTXOs enforce rules on how they’re spent in the future. Using new introspection opcodes, scripts can inspect the spending https://t.co/SVvt2eMw8F
03:17 PM·Jan 4, 2026
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January 6, 2026. Kaspa made steady progress in 2025, focusing on scaling its GHOSTDAG based Proof of Work architecture while laying foundations for native smart contract functionality. The Crescendo hard fork increased block production to 10 blocks per second, significantly boosting throughput and transaction capacity without sacrificing decentralization.
Development momentum continued through Kasplex zkEVM progress, multiple covenant focused testnets, and early DAGKnight research for faster finality. Ecosystem growth included new social applications, rising node participation, and active community tooling, positioning Kaspa for a programmable PoW expansion phase in 2026.
Kaspa Testnet 12’s covenants launch teaches programmable spending conditions in UTXO based chains. Students can explore how covenants restrict coin usage, such as vaults, escrow, and time locks, without full Turing complete contracts, improving security and simplicity compared with Ethereum’s EVM. Compare Bitcoin’s limited OP codes with Kaspa’s native covenant design for layered protocols. Discuss benefits like inheritance and DeFi primitives, alongside trade offs between flexibility and auditability. This illustrates how Proof of Work chains evolve toward smart functionality while preserving decentralization.
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